Testing the concept of artifact mediation to understand the notion of integration pathway

Abstract

The notion of “pathways” features strongly in the French national policy on integrating people far removed from employment. The strategy to prevent and combat poverty includes the following references concerning employment integration: “the implementation of the pathway referee approach”; “the pathway of RSA beneficiaries”; “a training pathway for all young people”. Involved in an innovative territorial collaborative project as researchers practicing EthPAR (Ethical Participatory Action Research), the question underlying our research was “how can human relations be facilitated within local integration ecosystems?”. Given the repeated use of the notion of “pathway” in the data on inclusion, it seemed “obvious” to us that the concept should be used to encourage inclusion stakeholders to express themselves. Thus, the integration pathway became a mediating artifact. This article has two objectives: to describe how the notion of pathways was used to mediate with inclusion stakeholders, and how, in the process, it led the author to reexamine the place of the notion of pathway in the development of the local inclusion policy (transformation of the researcher by his or her research device) and to propose new research perspectives (inclusive enabling territory).